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The One Thing Buffett And Trump Agree On

It is extremely obvious to anyone who is paying attention that although he has refused to offer too much criticism, Warren Buffett is not a huge fan of President Trump. He backed Hillary Clinton pretty vocally in the 2016 presidential race, in fact, and even bused voters to the polls in his hometown of Omaha. Throughout the presidential race, he said quite a few not-so-savory things about the President as well.

As a staunch democrat, it’s likely that Trump and Buffett don’t see eye-to-eye on quite a few things. But, as it turns out, there seems to be at least one thing which Buffett agrees on: energy. In fact, both Buffett and Trump have indicated in the past that expenses related to climate change are burdensome on businesses.

Buffett owns quite a few companies that are in the energy business, some of which work with renewable energy and many that do not, so it’s obvious that the impact of climate change and energy is important to Berkshire Hathaway. It has also been brought forward in the past that climate change might effect Berkshire’s insurance businesses as well, and Buffett released a statement saying he thought it likely to harm the industry–in fact, it might even make more money.

“Up to now, climate change has not produced more frequent nor more costly hurricanes nor other weather-related events covered by insurance. As a consequence, U.S. super-cat rates have fallen steadily in recent years, which is why we have backed away from that business. If super-cats become costlier and more frequent, the likely — though far from certain — effect on Berkshire’s insurance business would be to make it larger and more profitable,” Buffett wrote in his 2015 letter.

Additionally, the chairman has voted down environmental-related requests for Berkshire Hathaway to change its policies once already, and has issued a statement against a second proposal this year. Both requests were related to Berkshire’s energy business and tied to trying to help prevent climate change.

All of this might seem a little strange coming from a man who believes so strongly that climate change is real, but we’ve seen in the past how well Buffett separates his own personal beliefs from what will benefit his company. That’s part of what makes him such a powerful and good CEO and chairman.

Disclosure: This website is not owned or endorsed by Mr. Warren Buffett or Berkshire Hathaway. We are an independent organization dedicated to finance news & events about the world's greatest investor.